Academic skills

You should show evidence of critical thinking by finding credible sources that are relevant to your work. You can use the Who-What-Where-When-Why method to help you decide which sources should be used for your academic assignments. Ask yourself the following questions about each source that you find:

• Who wrote it? Is the author an expert in their field? It’s safe to assume that someone is an expert if they have written an academic book or journal article. However, if you come across someone online who claims to be an expert, you should do further research to ensure that they are telling the truth.
• What type of source is it? You should think carefully before using sources that are not considered to be academic - including websites, blogs, videos and news articles - in your assignments.
• Where did you find it? Sources found through the University College Birmingham library and other academic databases are generally reliable, but you should think carefully about information found on the internet to ensure you trust the source.
• When was it published or last updated? Even academic sources like books and journal articles might not be reliable if they are outdated. You should always try to use the most recent sources published about your topic in your assignments.
• Why was it written? Any information that was created to sell something or to promote a particular viewpoint could be biased, so you should think carefully about using it in your academic work.

Critical thinking involves reflecting on how different sources relate to each other. Do your sources agree? Which ones disagree and why? Do any sources provide unique information or perspectives? The answers to these questions will help you start thinking about how to answer your assignment task.

To achieve high marks for your assignments, you are expected to display evidence of critical writing. Critical writing involves making judgements about your topic and using reliable sources to back up your arguments. 

Most of the time, you will be expected to submit critical, not descriptive, academic writing. This means that instead of telling your lecturer about information you found, you should show your lecturer the ways in which your sources agree (or disagree) about a topic and how that information applies to your assignment. You can find an example of critical writing in the Academic Writing section below.

Critically thinking about what others - including your lecturers - say can encourage you to ask questions that might clarify your understanding of a topic. You might also challenge others to think in new ways, which is what university is all about!

Critical thinking is a skill you can (and should) be using every time you encounter information. When you read the news, pay attention to whether the news story references where its information came from. If not, you should ask yourself whether it’s reliable. When you listen to a podcast, confirm that the information is correct by looking at different views from other sources. When you are chatting with friends, don’t be afraid to challenge anything you hear that might not be based in fact. The more you think about the reliability of your sources, the more likely you will be to identify biased or incorrect information when you see and hear it.

There are two main types of academic writing: critical writing and descriptive writing. You will need both to write your assignments.

Critical writing is useful for answering questions about ideas, principles, models and other concepts, while descriptive writing is useful for describing and defining those ideas and concepts. It is difficult to evaluate something without explaining what it is first, and this is where descriptive writing comes in handy for your assignments.

However, to achieve a high level of academic writing, you will also have to answer questions about the ideas and concepts you introduce: How are they good or bad? What are their limitations? How can they be improved? To answer these questions, you will need to write critically. This means using academic language to discuss the work of other writers in your field. Writing critically can include assessing the quality and validity of other writers’ work as well as making connections between the sources you have found. Any claims you make should be backed up by evidence from your reading.

You may be thinking, I’m just a student! How can I criticise a researcher’s work? You’re not alone. This is a major worry for lots of university students. The key is to think about how a researcher’s work is useful or not useful within the context of your assignment.

Look at this example of critical writing by Student A:

Studies have found that students benefit from accessing online learning tools in addition to in-person teaching because it allows students to learn at their own pace (Perry, 2024, p. 41; Delgado, 2023, p. 92). Allowing students to learn independently has been proven to reduce anxiety and improve students’ mental health, which suggests that universities should be focusing their resources on providing more online learning opportunities (Perry, 2024, p. 45; Zhing and Takhar, 2023, p. 165). However, the research fails to address the fact that universities would have to find the finances and staff to create these resources.

Compare Student A’s critical writing to this example of descriptive writing by Student B:

Perry’s (2024, p. 41) article outlines the positive impacts of providing online learning tools for students to access alongside their in-person teaching. The author also says that online learning helps reduce anxiety about learning in classrooms (Perry, 2024, p. 45).

Think about the differences between these two pieces of writing. Student A has used multiple sources to prove their points, and they have shown that they can make suggestions about, and even critique, their sources. Student A does not suggest that their sources are incorrect or useless. Rather, they use critical writing to show that they can present their own views about the research.

On the other hand, while Student B has done a good job of showing that they have read and understood an academic source, they have missed an opportunity to relate the source to their overall argument. Student B has not made connections to other academic sources, and they do not present any of their own views about the research they have found.

While elements of descriptive writing like Student B’s will be necessary in your academic work, the level of critical writing demonstrated by Student A is what your lecturers will be looking for.

Remember: being critical can take your academic writing from ‘good’ to ‘excellent’.

In certain situations, you may be asked to reflect on your personal and professional development while applying standards and theories from your field. This is called reflective writing, and it requires using more personal language because you will be talking about your own experiences and feelings. Even though reflective writing is a more personal form of academic writing, it should still be supported by research and referenced correctly.

Here is an example of reflective writing by Student C:

I valued my time working in a care home because I was able to learn more about the skills required to care for older patients. I particularly enjoyed interacting with nonverbal patients, who, according to Ross (2024, p. 43), sometimes experience “frustration when they cannot communicate clearly”.

Notice that Student C uses the first person to talk about their personal experience, but they make sure to back up their experience with evidence from a credible source.

What are the key issues in your field? What topics do the professionals, scholars and researchers think are important? Is there anything missing from the discussion? What are the key theories related to your topic?

A literature review can help you answer these questions. You will usually be asked to write a literature review as part of a larger project, like a dissertation.

Writing a literature review involves identifying the key publications and writers in your field and investigating what the main conversations are about. Literature reviews require you to use critical, academic language to assess which publications and topics are most relevant for your own research.

The idea of writing academically can feel quite scary. However, it is important to understand that there is not just one correct way to write an academic assignment. Learning more about academic style can help you to become a more confident academic writer.

What is academic style? It involves writing your assignment in a way that makes sense to you and then applying a set of rules to your work to make it academic.

Often, students try to write academically by using technical language, long sentences and complicated grammar which make their work difficult to understand. This method is like trying to run before you can walk. First, you need to make sure that YOU understand what you’re trying to say.

Once you have written your assignment in a simple way that makes sense to you, you can use certain guidelines, like the ones below, to make your writing more academic. Here are some academic style rules that are used at University College Birmingham:

• Do not use personal pronouns (I, you, we) except for when you have been asked to write reflectively.
• Avoid using structures such as ‘I think…’.  Instead, use ‘It can/could be argued that…’; ‘It is likely that…’; ‘It is unlikely that…’; ‘It is possible that…’; etc. 
• Avoid direct language. Do not say ‘This is true.’ Instead, say ‘This may/could/might be true’.
• Do not use contractions (‘don't’, ‘there's’). Instead, write whole words (‘do not’, ‘there is’).
• Avoid vague language such as ‘nowadays’ or ‘lots of’. Instead, indicate specific dates and numbers.
• Avoid using ‘like’. Instead, use ‘such as’ or ‘for instance’.
• Avoid ending lists with ‘and so on’ or ‘etc’. Instead, complete the list.
• Avoid using ‘thing’. Instead, use specific vocabulary, such as ‘factor’, ‘issue’ or ‘topic’.
• Avoid informal language such as ‘kids’, ‘boss’, etc. Instead, use ‘children’, ‘manager’, etc.
• Use British English spellings unless you are quoting from or stating the title of a source that uses different spellings.
• Do not use questions (‘Why are customer reviews so important?’). Instead, use statements (‘Customer reviews are important because...’).
• Where possible, avoid using phrasal (multi-word) verbs such as ‘go on’ or ‘bring up’. Instead, use single-word verbs, such as ‘continue’ or ‘raise’.

For help with academic English, students can book an appointment in the Academic Skills Centre or explore University College Birmingham's English language support.

It’s important to think about the topic you’d like to explore. Think about why it interests you and what you’d like to find out about it. Perhaps most importantly, think about why the topic is important and needs to be explored. If a topic is interesting, but doesn’t have anything written about it yet, you will struggle to find enough sources. Alternatively, if a topic has loads written about, it but isn’t interesting to you, it will make writing about your topic difficult. Your aim is to find a happy medium: find a topic that interests you, but that hasn’t been explored in the way you are looking at it.

Start with some keyword searches using USearch or another academic database. At this point, you aren’t reading to answer a question; you’re reading to ask a question – your research question! Use skimming and scanning techniques to get a sense of what has been written about the topic. Keep track of the information so you can come back to it later.

Formulate a research question based on the information you have found. You can get started by asking yourself the following questions:

• What questions do I still have after my initial reading?
• Can my question be answered based on the existing research?
• Is my question broad/specific enough to fill my assignment word count?
• Is my question complex enough? It should NOT be a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question.
• Is my question interesting? After all, I'm the one who will be researching it!

Now that you have a specific question in mind, you can read the sources you found earlier in more detail. You can also look for more specific sources to help you answer your research question.

You may want to begin writing your literature review at this stage. This is a great way to keep track of your sources, while also critically evaluating them, and writing this section early can save you a lot of time later.

Set time aside to get words on the page. You don’t have to write your project in order; in fact, it’s common to write the introduction and abstract last. 

Now is a great time to familiarise yourself with your grading criteria and Academic Skills Outcomes to understand what is expected of your written work at your level of study. Remember: if your dissertation is badly written, you will not score highly, even if your topic is amazing. Don’t forget that your research project is not just about the content; it should show off your writing skills too.

Ask for feedback from your supervisor and even your friends and family. Ask them whether your writing is clear and answers your research question. Book an appointment in the Academic Skills Centre for advice about researching, writing, and referencing - but remember that any specific questions about completing your research project need to be directed to your supervisor. You can also give yourself feedback by marking your work according to your grading criteria.

Using whatever techniques work best for you, edit and proofread your work. You might read your work out loud, mark up a printed copy or make comments on a digital document. Always make sure that your work is formatted and referenced correctly.